In a telephone network, a network cable from the central office is connected to a building entrance protector (BEP) located at the customer site, where the individual telephone lines are broken out line by line. The network cable, which consist of a plurality of tip-ring wire pairs that each represent a telephone line, is typically connected to a connector block that is an integral part of the BEP. Such connectors may be, for example, the ubiquitous 66-type punch down connector, or SC 99 type connector block, such as are available from Lucent Technologies Inc., or a mini-rocker type connector, also known in the art, and sold by A.C. Egerton, Ltd.
A connector generally has a movable top section which comprises two wire insertion holes and a lower fixed section which houses a pair of terminal. The top movable section pivots about a pivot point located towards back side of the connector. The top section has a movable latch member to maintain the top section in its closed position. To open the top section, a user releases latch member and pivots the top section around the pivot point to its open position.
When the top section is open, the terminal strips do not intersect the wire insertion holes, and when the top section is closed, the terminal strips intersect the wire insertion holes. In order to establish an electrical connection between the wires and the terminal strips a user first opens the top section, i.e., pivots the top section to its open position, inserts the pair of wires, and then closes the top section. Upon closing the top section of the connector, the wires are brought into electrical contact with the terminal strips. To remove the wires and/or break the electrical connection, the process is reversed.
Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 1A, there is shown a prior art connector 10 including a pair of terminals 28a,28b. Each terminal 28a,28b includes a terminal strip portion 30a,30b, respectively, used for attaching a wire to connector 10. A wire-wrap tail 29a,29b is connected to the center of the base of terminal strip portion 30a,30b, respectively. Each of wire-wrap tails 29a,29b must be electrically isolated from the other, as these portions of the terminal strip will always necessarily extend beyond the plastic insulating body of the connector to provide access by the wire wrap tool used to connect a wire to the terminal strip.
Generally, the space S between wire-wrap tails 29a and 29b should be sufficient enough to achieve acceptable dielectric performance. Yet, as high density within any wiring location is generally desired, it may be desirable to reduce the size of connector 10 so that more connectors can be used within a given area. However, in order to reduce the size of connector 10, the distance between terminals 28a and 28b must also be reduced, which will result in the reduction of the dielectric strength between wire-wrap tails 29a and 29b to unacceptable levels.